The wildfire smoke has returned. Perhaps that has something to do with the lessening of the late afternoon mosquitos out on The Urban Porch ™ . I’m not sure if that’s the case, but it could be possible. While standing in the shower and thinking about mosquitos and attraction, I started thinking about blood types, the theory that some blood types attract mosquitos (varying opinions on that), and then on to the different types of blood, the universal donor and who can receive transfusions from who. From there, contemplations moved on to organ donations. All of these thoughts of course were going off in a rapid-fire series of segues.

Apparently, people who are the universal donor (Type O) statistically end up much longer on an organ donation waitlist because if an organ from a Type O person becomes available, everybody else can receive it, but Type O’s can only receive Type O. Therefore, more Type O’s die waiting for a transplant. Or so I understand it, which is kind of a bummer if that’s your type and your situation.

From that sobering thought (while still in the shower) I started thinking about kidney transplants and that if one of my kids needed a transplant, how I would definitely offer a kidney – although I’m not sure anyone would want or could use my old kidney, given my age and health history. But….if they needed it, of course I would gladly hand it over.

Moving on from there, I started thinking about living kidney donors in general. Like let’s say you donated a kidney to some person, and somewhere down the line that person ended up on life support for some reason, maybe a fatal accident. Provided the kidney they got from you was not damaged, could they take the kidney you donated and put it back into you? Could a person get their old kidney back if it was no longer being used? I know, this is a really odd question (and not one that has anything to do with me at all), but I just wondered if it was even a possibility. I would think if it was possible, the rejection rate might be lower since it was your own kidney? Suddenly I wanted to know this – I guess that is the science nerd part of me.

To quell the curiosity, after my shower I actually Googled organ restitution and found out some interesting things. A kidney can be recycled (so to speak) – a donated kidney can be donated more than once! So if a recipient of a donated kidney died and they had designated themselves as an organ donor, and if the kidney was still good, you could use that kidney again in somebody else who needed it. About getting your original kidney back – putting ethics aside in this hypothetical scenario – ethically a person could not ask for their kidney back from someone who is alive and still using it (that would be bizarre…I wonder if anyone had ever tried to do that). But let’s say the person offered to give you your old kidney back or was on life support about to be disconnected – yes, theoretically your old kidney could get put back inside you and it would function.

One would think that the rejection rate of having your own kidney back would be pretty low. But apparently there are other factors that could complicate things; damaging the fragile kidney during the procedure, the presence of immunosuppressant drugs that were used in the previous recipient to prevent rejection, scarring in the original donor that occurred after their kidney was first removed, and other medical reasons beyond.

I know, that was a pretty weird rabbit hole to go down, but (for me) an interesting one. If anybody ever wondered, there is some info for you to ponder.

Back to the smoke situation, it’s hazy and humid out. At the moment it doesn’t smell that strongly, considering today the air index reading is in the Unhealthy red zone. There are things I could be doing….there are massive amounts of rampant Trumpet Vine on the back fence that has taken over and really needs to be cut back or removed. I’ve been invited to meet friends for some outside hanging out and later out tonight for food and some live music. While the part of me that spends some significant time alone feels that it would be mentally healthy to get out, see people and do something, the reclusive, anti-socialite part of me doesn’t really want to leave the house.

Last night I tried a new recipe, “Burnt Leeks with Cannellini Beans”, which was originally vegan, except I kind of un-veganized part of it. It was really good, I just went downstairs to eat the leftovers on onion rye toast for lunch. Also yesterday I picked more mulberries off the local tree and am thinking about what different things can be done with them. This past week I made a mulberry/blueberry crisp using some of the mulberries and the remaining frozen blueberries picked with a friend last summer. I admit I ate most of it right out of the pan and smiling while standing at the counter with a spoon. And right now I’m breaking off some pieces of Appalachian Wild Chai artisan chocolate. It is all too easy to just sit here, complacent with a lack of inertia. There is a tendency to use food as an excuse to stay home. Then I chastise myself for not pushing myself to get out more. It feels as if I’m starting to get bird habits – in bed as soon as it gets dark and up with the sun. I recall my mother being like that. Wonder if it is a senior thing.

I envision a colorful graphic in my mind that has a pie-chart with arrows swinging between the high humidity, high-smoke, low-mosquito weather section, the food, book, TV and movie section, the internet-scrolling useless information section, and the human interaction/social section. It remains to be seen where the arrows will land today.

~*~